Thief of Time

"The genesis for ToT, for me, was an article I read a few years ago about
a genuine glass clock, with one metal component (the image of it
shattering in slow motion tends to stick in the mind) and I believe it
was made in Germany. The idea of a perfect clock stopping Time seemed an
inevitable next step. This made it a 'Susan' book, because she's not a
creature of time... which brought in Death and the Auditors, with their
known animosity to life... and so it went."

The name "Myria" resonated with the English word "myriad", meaning "a
vast number" or "comprised of a large number of things".

In the Bible, Mark 5, Jesus encounters a man in the country of the
Gadarenes who is possessed by not one, but a multitude of unclean
spirits: "And [Jesus] asked him, What is thy name? And he answered,
saying, My name is Legion: for we are many." (Jesus allows the spirits to
leave the man, and enter a herd of swine instead.)

In other words (and as Susan will also explain later), Myria(d)
LeJean/legion is a perfectly appropriate name for a large group of (evil)
spirits controlling a human body.

We've encountered Xeno the philosopher and his paradoxes before, in
Pyramids. See the various 'philosopher' annotations for that book.

+ [p. 21] "'Grim Fairy Tales?' he said."

Reference to our world's Grimm's Fairy Tales, after the influential
volumes of folk and fairy tales collected and published in the nineteenth
century by the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

+ [p. 28] "[footnote: There may, as the philosopher says, be no spoon,
although this begs the question of why there is the idea of soup.]"

I don't think there has ever been a philosopher who has made
pronouncements about spoons, but "There is no spoon" is of course one of
the better-known metaphysical mumbo-jumbo quotes from the original The Matrix movie.

Echoes of the 'Crane' technique' made famous by the The Karate Kid movies. Martial Arts in general, and Kung Fu in particular, have many
techniques and styles named after animals, e.g. 'Stance of Horse'.

There's of course also Wile E. Coyote's 'stance' -- suspended in mid-air
for seconds before dropping into the ravine -- from the Roadrunner
cartoons.

+ [p. 35] "[...] a crowbar dropped out and onto the street with a clang."

Later in the book (p. 138) Lobsang says building a clock that would tick
with the universe would be impossible because "it would be like opening a
box with the crowbar that's inside", but that's just what happens here
because Jeremy has some help. A nice little precursor.

Circular breathing is the technique of breathing in through the nose
while simultaneously breathing out through the mouth. This allows
musicians playing a wind instrument to hold a single note for minutes at
a time, if necessary.

+ [p. 70] "'It is the Way of Mrs Marietta Cosmopilite, 3 Quirm Street,
Ankh-Morpork, Rooms For Rent, Very Reasonable.'"

We have met Mrs Marietta Cosmopilite in several previous books starting
from Moving Pictures.

+ [p. 72] "'Word one is, you don't call me "master" and I don't name you
after some damn insect.'"

A reference to the 'grasshopper' nickname from the Kung Fu television
series (see also the annotation for p. 165/107 of Good Omens
).

+ [p. 110] "Oh, maybe fishermen would start to dredge up strange whiskery
fish that they'd only ever seen before as fossils [...]"

Coelacanths are the oldest living fish known to date. In 1938, a
Coelacanth was found off the east coast of South Africa. Up to then,
these animals were considered to have been extinct since the end of the
Cretaceous era.

Qu is of course the Discworld version of Q, head of the technical branch
of the British Secret Service in the James Bond movies, who was played by
Desmond Llewellyn until his death in 1999.

This entire scene is written in the style of the classic James Bond / Q
dialogues. Terry says:

"As I wrote it I could [hear Llewellyn's voice], too. Qu will be back --
unlike, alas, Desmond Llewellyn."

+ [p. 124] "'Bang, instant karma!'"

'Instant Karma!' is the title of a well-known John Lennon track.

+ [p. 130] "He found himself thinking of his new master as the tick-tock
man."

'Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktock Man' is the title of a classic
science-fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. It describes a dystopian
society, ruled and time-regulated down to the microsecond by the Master
Timekeeper, aka the Ticktock Man. The Timekeeper is challenged by the
free-spirited Harlequin (who is never on time -- a crime punishable by
death in that society).

The White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is always late
(i.e. having trouble with time) and anxious: "Oh my ears and whiskers,
how late it's getting!". See also the annotation for p. 46/35 of Soul Music
.

+ [p. 289] "The Death of Rats had scurried up the side of the clock [...]"